Until just recently, due to Hurricane Helene, numerous National and State Parks have been closed in W North Carolina and parts of southern Virginia.
But within the past couple of weeks, some roadways and bridges have been restored – but only partly and with slower speed limits. That’s great news! But many detours are still in place. It may still take up to a year to make some repairs.
For your safety – as well as the safety of Park staff and emergency response workers – please don’t attempt to access roads or parks that have been closed.
NOTE: In the past few days, wildfires have also impacted the area. Please check for conditions before you travel to W North Carolina!!
I’ve listed some info below, and links to the latest info updates for your hike and travel planning.
Happy trails – LJ
NC State Park Info
North Carolina state parks West of I-77 were closed through the end of October 2024. Some have opened or partially opened now.
The affected parks are listed below. Please click park name for specific info:
The National Park Service is discouraging unnecessary travel in and to western North Carolina unless the area has been declared open and safe. Many roads continue to be closed due to unsafe conditions.
To get up to date info on all Virginia State Park statuses, Click here.
Ponies at Grayson Highlands State Park.
National Park Info
Some of our nearby National Parks are or were closed or partially closed through an abundance of caution in the days immediately following Hurricane Helene.
Many have now partially or entirely re-opened and are encouraging visitors to come and bring their tourist dollars and other donations, as the towns need revenue from visitors more than ever to help rebuild!
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
If you’re planning to visit Gatlinburg and the Smokies, the TN side of the National Park was largely unaffected (other than the Hartford area near Davenport gap on the AT), and the NPS are saying the whole Park is open, with the exception of some Alerts they’ve posted to their site (listed below).
I haven’t seen what the trail itself looks like there, but I’m still planning to hike the Park in late October, with Gatlinburg as my base. I’ll report back on conditions via the IRW Facebook page.
The community there is EXTREMELY tourism dependent, and your business will be greatly appreciated.
They say there are donation centers set up in the area if you want to help when you come. I plan to load up my car and drop it off when I get to town. The locals there will help get it where it needs to go.
Several trails in the park are temporarily closed. Please check the “Trail and Backcountry Closures, Warnings & Cautions” section of the Current Road, Facility, Trail & Backcountry Updates page for further details.
A straight stretch of Skyline Drive bordered by trees ablaze in fall colors.
Shenandoah National Park
In case of any confusion, Shenandoah National Park is fully open and operating under normal conditions.
Keep updated with park closures and weather conditions by visiting their alerts and conditions page on our website.
If you are planning a section hike, day hike or thru hike on the AT, please be aware of current conditions in the area where you are planning to go.
Dangerous conditions exist with thousands of trees potentially down, increasing chance of injury exponentially. The likelihood of rescue is also far more difficult and will severely tax local rescue efforts already with their hands full.
The Appalachian Trail Conservancy is a private nonprofit and doesn’t have the authority to close sections of the A.T. However, for the reasons above, they are urging hikers to avoid the entire A.T. from Springer Mountain to Rockfish Gap (NOBO miles 0.0 to 864.6), regardless of formal closures.
Latest Status from the ATC website:
Current Conditions
The ATC, National Park Service (NPS), and U.S. Forest Service (USFS) have updated guidance for A.T. hikers based on initial, limited assessments.
Visitors should be aware that trail assessments have not been completed in all areas and caution should be exercised when hiking.
We are lucky to have a number of statewide trails in North Carolina. Some of them have been partially damaged by Hurricane Helene.
Blue Ridge Parkway
Road washout on the Blue Ridge Parkway at Milepost 345
The Blue Ridge Parkway from milepost 0 to milepost 198 in Virginia (which closed due to impacts from Hurricane Helene) reopened at 8 a.m. on Friday, October 11, 2024.
“Due to the hard work of the Blue Ridge Parkway crews, we are able to open nearly 200 miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia,” said Tracy Swartout, superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway. “While we celebrate this achievement, we also recognize that significant and, in some areas, long-term work remains in North Carolina. We are committed to restoring all sections of the parkway to the highest standards of safety and accessibility for our visitors.”
Visitors should be aware that trail assessments have not been completed in all areas and caution should be exercised when hiking.
Updates will be posted on the Blue Ridge Parkway website at www.nps.gov/blri .
Blue Ridge Parkway lined with colorful trees in the Fall.
Mountains to Sea Trail (MST)
The following update, as of October 4, 2024 comes from the Friends of the Mountains to Sea Trail:
“The MST from Kuwohi (Clingman’s Dome) through Stone Mountain State Park should be considered closed and highly dangerous.”
MST Trail blaze in Falls Lake
“In the coming days and weeks, we will be surveying the trail and assessing damage, but trail restoration is a very low priority in light of the humanitarian crisis facing western North Carolina, and it is likely that sections of the trail will remain closed for a significant length of time.“
There have been a lot of road closures around the area affected by Hurricane Helene, including some of the bigger highways.
Go to DriveNC.gov and view the entire State for up to date recommendations.
Check your route before you go, and plan for longer driving times.
Travel between western North Carolina and Tennessee is much improved, but still inaccessible and slower in spots. The estimated repair time for I-40 is currently unknown.
– – Training Week 7 began on Monday with a quick kickboxing and upper body weights session before loading the car and heading for the beach!
Why? Because I needed a change of scene, wanted to spend time with my girls, and had hotel points that were expiring 🙂
On a morning beach hike!
Training shouldn’t be torture, but doing the same thing in the same place over and over again can be just that – so I decided to shake things up for a few days.
Tiny liittle bit of beach view from our lodgings.
I arrived too late at our lodgings to do much but get settled in and cook dinner.
By the time we were finished, it had gotten pretty cold on the beach.
It IS still February!!
So, I had to wait for a beach walk until Tuesday morning.
I did some quick yoga, then went out for an early beach hike before the girls woke up.
Walking North on the beach.
I went North (away from Myrtle Beach) about 3 miles and then turned around, for a total beach walk of ~ 6 miles.
After breakfast, we braved the (horrible) beach traffics to get to Brookgreen, a wonderful sculpture garden, arboretum and Nature conservancy that sits a few miles South of Myrtle Beach proper.
Peacock statues guard the entrance to one of the main paved paths at Brookgreen.
Brookgreen has a couple of very short unpaved “trails” but we stuck to the paved garden paths to see all of the outdoor exhibits.
The girls at Brookgreen Gardens. Aren’t they pretty???
We only walked a couple of leisurely miles before stopping for an outdoor lunch at one of the restaurants on the grounds.
That said, if you were determined to get a workout in, you could certainly plan a much longer route to get a longer hike in during your Brookgreen visit.
Wednesday I let the girls sleep, did some yoga and was out early again – this time for a bit of a longer walk.
It was about 10 miles by the time I was done and perfect weather!
I did learn that one should NOT walk long distance in water shoes – even with a “hiking” sole – because I ended up with a huge blister on the bottom of my big toe 🙁
Another beautiful beach hike!
During my walk I saw an Irish Pub, Molly Darcy’s, right on the beach and thought the girls might like to go there for lunch.
Bonus being we could walk there and wouldn’t have to drive in the terrible traffic…but, no. They didn’t want to walk but we ate there anyway, and it was pretty good. 🙂
Irish Pub on the beach.
There was a bunch of stuff in the air and we couldn’t figure it out – then I realized that Myrtle is a few weeks ahead of us weather-wise, and I checked my car.
Sure enough, my car was covered with yellow dust. It was The Pollening.
Gorgeous sunset at the beach.
That said, it was our last night at the beach, and the sunset was gorgeous. Perhaps partly due to pollen 😉
The next morning, the girls left before sunrise to get home in time for work, and I did a quick beach walk (about 3 miles) to say goodbye before checking out.
My plan was to check out, zip back down to Brookgreen (the ticket is good for 7 days) and get on an early tour of the historical and Nature preserve parts of the garden that you don’t normally see.
The Brookgreen Silent Cities Tour
The tour started from the promenade near the Welcome Center.
There are a few tours offered at Brookgreen that take you to places you don’t get to see with your general admission ticket.
The tours change seasonally – mostly because some of the places are inaccessible during wet weather.
We boarded an open-sided short bus (stop it!) and took off away from the paved garden area.
Our guide narrated local and Brookgreen history and wildlife as we went.
Fox Squirrels inhabit the Nature conservation area o Brookgreen.
Fox Squirrels
I was surprised by a fox squirrel – a creature I’d never seen before – staring at me from a tree limb as we drove along.
It was huge, and seemed a lot more intelligent than a regular squirrel….
Fox squirrels, the largest of all tree squirrels, are the true life ROUS’s.
Described by our guide as a cross between a squirrel, a fox, and a raccoon – because who really know what goes on in those woods at night? – the Fox Squirrel is a relative of the common gray squirrel, but about twice the size.
An adult Fox Squirrel can grow between 20-26 inches in length (tail included) and can weigh up to 2.5 pounds.
Stopping at an English-style walled cemetery.
Aside from Rodents of Unusual Size, this tour focused on the two cemeteries dating back to the 1700’s – one English style, and one slave (Gullah style) cemetery – encompassed by Brookgreen lands.
Alston family tree chart outside the cemetery walls.
Our first stop was at a walled, English-style cemetery from the 1700’s that had been restored by the Huntington’s when they purchased the land.
The original Alston family (previous landowners) were the primary inhabitants.
Alston family descendants also have a right to be buried there, and we did see a headstone from as recently as 2013.
Table and vault-style gravesites.
There were three kinds of graves in this cemetery: the kind of headstones we see mostly these days, “table” memorials, and raised vaults.
Our second stop was a slave cemetery, unwalled, and we followed a short natural trail through the woods to where some of the graves had been uncovered.
Some of the visible headstones from the slave cemetery.
Some of the earliest graves were unmarked save for a metal plaque or just a sack of tabby (old time cement made with oyster shells) without a name – and some with the words “Go Back” inscribed.
According to Gullah tradition , once buried, deceased loved ones would “go back” to where they were originally taken in Africa.
A handmade headstone.
The mourners would never again return to the grave after the initial burial.
And since there would be no spirit there to visit, there was no need for a long-lasting memorial.
That said, there were some hand-made headstones there, and some more modern memorials where descendants of these slaves also had a right to be buried.
No longer following Gullah tradition, these headstones are like you would see in any modern cemetery.
Along the way back, we stopped by the Waccamaw River, across from Sandy Island, home to one of the last existing Gullah communities.
Sandy Island can be access from the Intracoastal Waterway and the Waccamaw River.
Brookgreen is hoping to work out a deal with the community there to allow tours to visit from Brookgreen, but they haven’t worked it out yet.
We returned the way we came – but faster! – back to the Welcome Center.
Informational plaques outside the English cemetery.
I had hoped to get done with the tour and then go across the street to Huntington Beach for a quick hike before heading home.
I had a quick pack lunch outside Atalaya Castle.
But the tour took 2 hours, so I had to settle for a quick pack lunch outside Atalaya Castle before hitting the highway. (You can take tours of the castle, which I’ve done in years’ past, but didn’t do this time.)
So, I guess Thursday was basically my “rest” day.
The Mill at West Point on the Eno.
Friday morning I led a great group of hikers on one of my favorites routes – 9.3 miles on the MST on the Eno river, from the Pump Station trail all the way to West Point on the Eno park and back.
It was a beautiful day, and a great group!
I was ready for a good long hike after a light exercise day and long hours driving Thursday.
View of the Eno River from the rocks along the Eagle/MST Trail.
Saturday was a kickboxing and upper body weights day in my home gym – partly because the weather took a big dip to the colder side, and rain was predicted for most of the day.
It felt good to use my “El Supremo Butt-kicker” muscles again after a few days away.
Workout tools in my home gym.
Sunday morning it was back to a little bit warmer after Saturday’s cold rain, so I had a big group signed up to hike part of the the Company Mill trail in Umstead State Park and some of the MUT.
It was a pretty short hike, but I added 15 lbs to my pack to make it a strength-training hike.
My beach walks were all flat with no added weight.
The extra weight was especially needed because all of my beach hikes earlier in the week were flat, with no added weight!
What a great hike, with a good group of hikers – many newcomers, so that was wonderful to see, too 🙂
So that’s it for Week 7! You did it!
It’s time to take a look at your goals and see what progress you’ve made.
Just think about what you’ve done!
Everyone should be improved somehow from where you started – even if it’s only that you’ve stuck with an exercise plan this long!
Think back to how hard it was to make yourself do SOMETHING every day.
How scary was it at the beginning to take your first longer hike – especially if you were hiking on your own for the first time? But you did it!!
Week 8 is coming up – the last week of the Awesome training!!
You’ve come this far – it should be a piece of cake! Well, okay, maybe no cake.
Just focus, focus focus….. and some longer hikes 🙂
I was told there would be cake!
TAKEAWAY LESSON: Training towards a goal is a planned process, but you should be able to respond to changes in weather or location without giving up your training entirely.
Just keep going – but safely, of course.
If you’re new around here, but you still want to do the training from the start – you can!
The Mountains to Sea Trail (MST) runs through or very near areas of North Carolina that were hardest hit by Hurricane Helene.
The Falls Lake section of the MST is open, along with many other NC State Parks and trails in the Eastern part of the State. That said, Parks and the MST on the Western side of the State have been damaged and may be inaccessible.
Go to my Hurricane Helene page to get the latest updates on the latest area Park, Trail and road repairs before you travel.
Smoky Mountains get their name from the mist that settles in the valleys.
The Mountains-to-Sea-Trail (MST) is a simple hiking trail that spans almost 1200 miles across North Carolina, from the Great Smoky Mountains in the West to the Outer Banks on the East Coast.
Even though I’ve known about the MST for a good while, I didn’t really start hiking it on purpose until this past year.
MST Day Hike #22 in Winter.
Lately more and more people have been moving to my local area, and the easy-to-get-to hiking trails have become really crowded – especially on the weekends.
So I’ve had to look a little bit farther away for new trails – and that’s how I started paying more attention to the MST.
As of January 2019, 669 miles of the trail were completed, and even more have been done since then.
The MST across North Carolina.
That’s just over half of the planned MST miles that are now completed in multiple segments across the state!
With temporary routes (for the unfinished parts of the MST) on backroads and bicycle paths, hikers can now follow the MST all the way across North Carolina.
One of the longest finished segments goes ~60 miles along the Southern shore of Falls Lake, just to the North of Raleigh near Wake Forest.
View of Falls Lake from the trail.
Even 60 miles (out of 1200) is an epic hike to most of us – but never fear!
You can hike smaller sections of the MST to make it an overnight backpacking trip, a day trip, or even just a few hours on the trail.
Today, I’ll tell you about the MST, and how you can hike my favorite local MST section (so far): MST Day Hike #22 at Rolling View in Falls Lake Recreation Area.
– – Training Week 7 began with That Man and I taking advantage of the last forecast day of mild, Spring-like weather with our first bike ride of the season.
We biked about 25 miles on some of our favorite local greenways, including the American Tobacco trail.
Some of our local greenways have fun tunnels!
A gorgeous day, and lots of other people were out enjoying it, too.
Biking hits a different set of muscles than hiking, so I was worried I would be sore the next day – but I wasn’t! The training must be working 🙂
Sunday morning it was back to a colder and rainy weather forecast, but I had a big group signed up to hike the 6.5 mile Company Mill trail in Umstead State Park before the rain set in for the rest of the day.
Monday I was planning to just do some kickboxing and weights, when Lenore posted a hike at Umstead so I signed up … but, it was not to be!
Work intervened, and I ended up doing the kickboxing and weights, and also a short urban hike with That Man in the cold sunshine later.
Seriously, this is really us.
Which was probably a good thing to do on Valentine’s Day anyway 🙂
Tuesday we were back to the MST at Falls Lake for a 9.3 mile hike with a small group from the trailhead on Baptist Rd to Little Lick Creek Bridge and back again.
View from the middle of Little Lick Creek Bridge.
A great hike, as always!
That said, my ankle started hurting badly on the last half of the hike, even though I didn’t remember doing anything to it….
I was relieved when the hike was over, so I could go ice it and put my foot up!
Hiking a bridge on the Loblolly Trail in Umstead State Park.
Wednesday was to be my Strength-Building hike for the week, and I had a good crew signed up for a 6-7 mile hike on Loblolly trail in Umstead State Park.
Technically the Loblolly Trail is an out-and-back from the trailhead to the edge of the park, but I add on a portion of the Schenck Forest Loblolly and the Reedy Creek Greenway to create a 6.5mile loop.
Sign at the Loblolly Trailhead
This route is primarily natural trails with a portion of the compacted dirt multi-use trail and paved Reedy Creek trail.
The Loblolly route is not as rocky as the Company Mill Trail, and has less elevation gain, though there are a couple of long uphill climbs.
But even with ankle compression – and a sleeve on my opposite knee that was hurting from compensating for the ankle – it was just too painful to continue more than a mile or two.
Fortunately, I had a group of strong hikers who were familiar with the route, so they were able to continue on without me.
I went straight to the pharmacy to get the strongest ankle brace I could find – and more ibuprofen 😉
Between that and rest in the meantime, I’m determined to be ready for my next posted hike!
Thursday was going to be a kickboxing day, but I opted for some heavy core yoga work and arm weights instead, to keep from stressing my ankle.
I tried an urban walk, just a few miles, on Thursday evening, and found that there hadn’t been much improvement – so I decided to try something different.
Workout tools in my home gym.
Friday after more core yoga, I made an appointment to take a session in an Infrared sauna.
I mainly wanted a sauna to work up a sweat to take the place of the cardio workouts that I can’t do until my ankle is healed.
But, Infrared is very different than a traditional sauna, and I also discovered that the Infrared sauna has a lot more to offer than just a good sweat.
Before we get into the benefits, let me explain exactly what an Infrared sauna is.
The use of sweat bathing or “hot air baths” were a part of Chinese, Native American, and Eastern European culture, and have been used all over the world for centuries.
Traditional Sauna
These traditional saunas use heat or steam to create an atmosphere that will raise your core body temperature by raising the temperature of the air inside the sauna.
The appeal of saunas in general is that they cause your body to react as if you’re exercising, with sweating and an increased heart rate.
Infrared saunas use infrared light to heat your body without changing the air temperature around you.
Infrared saunas are built using three different sauna therapies:
Near IR impacts the surface of the body, namely the skin.
Mid IR affects the muscles, and
Far IR permeates far into the body to reach the organs. (ref)
Infrared Sauna
Benefits of Using an Infrared Sauna
1. DETOXIFICATION
Sauna therapy, especially far IR, is excellent for detox. By using an infrared sauna, you can rid your body of built-up and dangerous mold, chemicals, and heavy metals.
2. CIRCULATION
Mid IR sauna therapy improves circulation and can give muscles a greater degree of flexibility, increased range of motion, decreased stiffness, and less joint pain.
3. REPAIR AND REGENERATE CELLS
Near IR sauna therapy promotes faster cell regeneration and tissue growth, which speeds up the skin’s healing process. By activating heat shock proteins, infrared sauna therapy also repairs cellular damage in the body.
4. LOWER INFLAMMATION
Near IR consists of extremely short wavelengths, which lowers inflammation. The short wavelengths can improve the quality of your skin and diminish the appearance of unwanted blemishes.
5. BOOST IMMUNITY
Near IR sauna therapy increases blood circulation and oxygenation in blood cells, strengthening the immune system, improving cellular health, and aiding in muscle recovery.
6. WEIGHT LOSS
Studies show that a single far IR sauna therapy session can burn up to 600 calories. In cases of patients who must remain sedentary, a sauna could be used as a substitute for traditional exercise.
8. ACTIVATE MITOCHONDRIAL ACTIVITY
There is evidence that heat exposure is very healthy for your energy-producing mitochondria.
The Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a protein in your brain that helps keep your brain young and healthy. Studies show that heat exposure can help boost your levels of this all-important protein in your brain!
In some studies, people who used Infrared saunas experienced an improvement in their asthma symptoms.
Canoe launch, Umstead State Park
Improve Wound Healing and Chronic Disease
Infrared saunas are unique in that they can help to improve wound healing – though you shouldn’t use one with an open wound.
Specifically, research out of NASA has shown that infrared light significantly increases tissue growth and cell regeneration due to our mitochondria readily accepting infrared light (ref).
This increases the cellular activity needed for wound healing.
In the study, wound size decreased by as much as 36%, and cell growth was enhanced by 150-170%.
Infrared sauna can help with healing wounds and scars.
The young woman who helped me at my local spa said that she had scars on her abdomen from several surgeries, and that the Infrared sauna made them heal and disappear very quickly!
Several studies have looked at using infrared saunas and found some evidence of benefit, in the treatment of chronic health problems, too, such as:
high blood pressure,
congestive heart failure,
dementia and Alzheimer’s disease,
headache,
type 2 diabetes and
rheumatoid arthritis
However, larger and more-rigorous studies are needed to confirm these results. On the other hand, no adverse effects have been reported with infrared saunas.
Cost for one 45 minute session at my local salon is around $40, though you can get discount packages.
If you try Infrared Sauna and really like it, you can even get one for your own home at relatively small expense.
Sunny winter day at Falls Lake.
I went for another short urban walk with That Man on Friday evening – around 2-3 miles – and found that there was some improvement in my ankle already!
Was the improvement due to the Infrared sauna treatment? Hard to say, but it probably didn’t hurt.
So, I think I’ll do a few more sessions in the Infrared sauna – at least until the ankle is a lot more healed up.
Who knows, I may see some other improvements as well 🙂
Week 8 is coming up – the last week of the training!!
It might be difficult with my bum ankle, but I’ll find a way. If I can do it, so can you!
TAKEAWAY LESSON: Training towards a goal is a planned process, but you should be able to respond to unplanned events like injury or weather changes without giving up your training entirely. Just keep going – but safely, of course.
I hope you’ve found my Training Log ramblings to be helpful- or at least amusing! 🙂 To see more of them go to my Training Log.
